With most chefs and authors working hard to craft their recipes and extra care given to create aesthetically beautiful layout and imagery, I have always been a big believer in the value of a good cookbook. There is of course no doubt how remarkably important online resources can be, but a thoughtfully curated physical cookbook will hold a special place in your heart that the internet just cannot replicate. For most, a favorite cookbook will be a treasured item you’ll keep on your shelf and one you’ll likely go back to countless times.

As far as learning French cooking goes, it is all but impossible to start without mentioning a few timeless cookbooks such as Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Le Guide Culinaire of Escoffier, The Larousse Gastronomic and Paul Bocuse: The Complete Recipes.  For Americans, these cookbooks are great to learn the basics of Classic French cooking. But it should be noted that French cooking has evolved a lot since Escoffier or Julia Child’s era. Dishes today tend to be lighter, desserts are less sweet and regional cooking better embraced. 

This is why I wanted to curate for you a list of some of my favorite newer French cookbooks (in English), that perhaps better reflect the ways in which French people cook and eat today. When laying out this cookbook list, I favored accessible recipes, beautiful photography and easy-to-find ingredients for people living outside of France. I own most of these cookbooks on my shelves, and regularly turn to them to try out something new, perfect a recipe or just for inspiration.

I hope you’ll enjoy this list of cookbooks for French cooking lovers! If you have any favorites that aren’t listed here, feel free to add a comment. 

Favorite French Recipe Collections

Parisian-focused Recipe Collections

French Baking Recipe Collections

French Drinks Recipe Collections

Disclosure Notice: This post contains affiliate links. This site is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. If you click on an affiliate link, I may earn advertising or referral fees if you make a purchase through such links, at no extra cost to you. Read the Privacy Policy & Disclosure page for more details. The books’ descriptions aren’t my own, they are excerpts taken from Amazon and/or Indigo. The list has been made in no particular order of preference.  

The post Recommended Cookbooks for French Cooking Lovers appeared first on Pardon Your French.

If you’re in need of a little more inspiration, here is a list of some of my new favorite French or French-themed cookbooks, published in 2020, or late 2019. Most of them are in English, two in French, and the last two aren’t cookbooks, but fantastic reads for any Francophile. Enjoy this selection, and please feel free to comment below this post to share some of your other favorite cookbooks from this year.

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my Privacy Policy & Disclosure page for more details.

The post Books & Cookbooks to Enjoy Right Now appeared first on Pardon Your French.

This year’s crew of French cookbooks has been absolutely remarkable; and I have been very impatient to share these selections with you. These books are all in English, and available online and in stores across the US/Canada, but still manage to perfectly “translate” the essence and authenticity of French cuisine. They all have a unique approach to French cuisine: Parisian-focused, Kids-focused, Pastry 101, Burgundy, Apéritif, etc…

I already own Tasting Paris, In The French Kitchen with Kids and French Baking 101, so I am also sharing my quick review of these 3 books (no suspense here… I love them all). I intend to get my hands on the other books very soon, as I already know they are great and full of promise (from having extensively glanced at them in bookstores, online, and reading reviews).

I hope you enjoy these few book ideas… Happy Holiday shopping! 

1. Tasting Paris: 100 Recipes to Eat Like a Local, by Clotilde Dusoulier.

Click to shop

Tasting Paris features new and classic French recipes and cooking techniques that will demistify the art of French cooking and transport your dinner guests to Paris. Whether you have experienced the charm of Paris many times or dream of planning your first trip, here you will find the food that makes this city so beloved. (…) With 100 recipes, 125 evocative photographs, and native Parisian Clotilde Dusoulier’s expertise, Tasting Paris transports you to picnicking along the Seine, shopping the robust open-air markets, and finding the best street food—bringing the flavors and allure of this favorite culinary destination to your very own kitchen (Amazon). My review: Tasting Paris boasts so many delicious recipes, but not only that… It’s a savvy mix of striking lifestyle and food photography, with classic and modern French recipes, sprinkled with a generous dose of Parisian-lifestyle anecdotes and tips on how to eat your way through Paris – like a real local. I love how Clotilde shares her personal insights on being a Parisian, but also embraces the multiculturalism of Paris – which is today, a huge part of the city’s identity. I have cooked and baked many recipes from this book this year, and they’ve always turned out amazing, with a great authentic taste.  

2. In the French Kitchen with Kids, by Mardi Michels

Click to shop

In her first book, Mardi Michels shows that French food doesn’t have to be complicated. The result is an elegant, approachable cookbook featuring recipes tailored for young chefs and their families. (…). With helpful timetables to plan out baking projects, as well as tips on how to get kids involved in the cooking, this book breaks down any preconceived notion that French cuisine is too fancy or too difficult for kids to master. With Mardi’s warm, empowering and encouraging instructions, kids of all ages will be begging to help out in the kitchen every day of the week (Amazon). My review: What a fun approach to French cooking and a perfect way to make it feel accessible to anyone! I have tried many recipes from the book (including these Raspberry Financiers) and they’ve all been successful, and delicious. Mardi’s instructions are clear and precise, and make every recipe feel effortless. It truly is a great book to show that French cuisine can be approachable, fuss-free and enjoyable!

3. French Pastry 101, by Betty Hung

Click to shop

Betty Hung-co-owner of Beaucoup Bakery-teaches you how to make amazing French pastry in one hour. French pastry is often thought of as difficult to master, but Betty Hung-founder of the blog Yummy Workshop and co-owner of Beaucoup Bakery-makes the classic art of French baking more approachable than ever. Most of her recipes only take an hour, which makes it much less daunting for beginners. (Amazon) My review: The 101 method and step-by-step photos are simply genius! This approach gives you the confidence you’ll need to dive into each recipe and show you that French pastry is far less daunting that what most people imagine it to be. It’s a great book to have in your library: it’s full of classics and timeless recipes. This is the kind of book you will go back to, over and over again.

4. Apéritif: Cocktail Hour the French Way, by Rebekah Peppler

Click to shop

For the French, the fleeting interlude between a long workday and the evening meal to come is not meant to be hectic or crazed. Instead, that time is a much needed chance to pause, take a breath, and reset with light drinks and snacks. Whether it’s a quick affair before dashing out the door to your favorite Parisian bistro or a lead-up to a more lavish party, Apéritif is about kicking off the night, rousing the appetite, and doing so with the carefree spirit of connection and conviviality. Apéritif celebrates that easygoing lifestyle with simple yet stylish recipes for both classic and modern French apéritif-style cocktails, along with French-inspired bites and hors d’oeuvres. (Amazon).

5. The Cook’s Atelier, by Marjorie Taylor and Kendall Smith Franchini

Click to shop

The debut cookbook from The Cook’s Atelier—the international culinary destination and cooking school in Burgundy—is a beautifully photographed resource on classic French cuisine and an atmospheric chronicle of a family’s life in a charming French village. (Amazon).

6. Let’s Eat France!, by François-Régis Gaudry

Click to shop

There’s never been a book about food like Let’s Eat France! A book that feels literally larger than life, it is a feast for food lovers and Francophiles, combining the completist virtues of an encyclopedia and the obsessive visual pleasures of infographics with an enthusiast’s unbridled joy. (Amazon)

7. The Bordeaux Kitchen, by Tania Teschke

Click to shop

More than a cookbook, this is a comprehensive cultural and culinary journey into the world of traditional French cuisine and French wine (adapted for paleo enthusiasts), and tips for ancestral living. Author Tania Teschke, food and wine gourmet, photographer, and lifelong student of French culture, brings you over 160 sumptuous and easy-to-follow recipes for seasonal and traditional French dishes that deliver not only the nutrition, but also the satisfaction we have been missing in our modern diet. (…) (Amazon).

The post 7 Cookbooks for the French food lover in your life appeared first on Pardon Your French.

For any foodie, getting ready for a trip to Paris can be both exciting and overwhelming. The city’s food scene is one of the most iconic in the world (if not the most), and yet it’s still always full of surprises…

Being French and a Paris regular, Paris feels comfortable to me. I know what I want from the city and I do have my favourite food spots already. But living in Canada has also put a strain on my knowledge of the city’s food scene and I’ve felt lately that I had some “catching-up” to do before reuniting with the city.

So today, I’d like to share my thoughts with you on the three books I am reading right now to prepare for our food trip to Paris. They’re not novels, but rather books you can leave near-by your couch and read bit by bit whenever you feel like it (which is why I am “reading” these three books simultaneously).

Written by three locals, they each approach the Parisian food culture in a fresh and contemporary way (finally!). Each writer unveiling their own side of the city, that is often unknown to foreigners…

Whether you’re also planning a trip to Paris or simply curious to learn about the traditions and new trends of the Parisian food scene, I guarantee you these books will give you something delicious to dream about.

The New Paris, by Lindsey Tramuta

A Philadelphia native, Lindsey Tramuta has called Paris home since 2006. She is a journalist, travel and culinary writer, avid francophile and the author of the brilliant blog Lost In Cheeseland (that I have been following for a while now, it’s really good!). Her book “The New Paris” (launched in 2017) focuses on debunking the cliché of a postcard-like Paris stuck in the past, and instead explores the “people, places and ideas that are fueling a movement”.

I just love how Lindsey, an American, managed to grasp so precisely the “renouveau” of the Parisian food scene. Unlike most Americans, she did not move in with pervasive perceptions of a cliché-filled Paris where locals all ride their bikes wearing berets with a baguette underneath their arm, feeding on croissants for breakfast, steak-frites for lunch and onion soup for dinner. Instead, Lindsey chose to approach her new city with a fully open-mind and captured, in words, the mini-revolution happening right now in Paris.  

She offers us a glimpse into the New Paris – the one where ethical practices, cultural fusions and sustainability do finally matter – which was not a natural thing to do for Paris. Parisians have been known to hold on to their traditions, and thus welcoming social media, foreign influences and even new chefs into the kitchens took longer in Paris than in other cities. But thankfully, the time has arrived.

Forget old-timey bistros and wines. The New Paris is vegan pastries, slow drip coffee, cocktails and craft brews.

A book that is so refreshing and that re-ignited my desire to explore this New Paris (while reconciling me with American writers on Paris, who too often share a romanticized image of the city).

A Taste of Paris, by David Downie

Being a French food and French History buff, David Downie’s book “A Taste of Paris“(2017) hit all the right notes for me.

With wit and an insane page-turning flair, Downie takes us on a voyage through the city’s culinary history, block by block and era by era. Unlike the previous book I mentioned, this one clearly showcases a Romanesque side of Paris – although for a very good cause.

It’s full of delectable anecdotes, any of which would make dazzling conversation starters during a dinner party with fellow foodies. From Marie Antoinette’s vegetable gardens in Versailles, still supplying organic produces today to Chef Alain Ducasse’s restaurant. To Father of French Gastronomy Grimod de La Reyniere’s gargantuesque menus, raising the pleasure of eating into the realm of the Beaux-Arts. To Brillat-Savarin’s book The Physiology of Taste discussing the pleasures of the table and building Paris’ fame as the ultimate Epicurean city.

I’d say the book’s subtitle “A History of the Parisian Love Affair with Food” is a bit misleading though. It really is a book about the history of food in Paris, and the people who played a role in it.     

I immediately connected with this book’s purpose of showing us how every street, every restaurant, every corner café, every dish in Paris hides a wonderful story behind it. I feel it makes your visit to any Parisian’s eatery so much more special and lively, with the ancient always part of the present.  

An approach to dining that couldn’t be more relevant, with today’s explosion of the “Fooding” (contraction of “food” and “feeling”), a Parisian-born trend meant to liberate French cuisine by offering a more spiritual eating experience in communion with your surroundings (rather than solely focusing on what’s on your plate to eat). 

In his own way, I feel Downie managed to share this approach too. Giving his readers a chance to embrace a more grounded, memory-laden eating experience, in our modern days Parisian restaurants.

A book that also helps you understand how Paris’s culinary heritage is possibly its greatest strength to maintain its relevance, at the forefront of culture and simply a model for the rest of the world.

Tasting Paris, by Clotilde Dusoulier

Last but not least, I urge you to get your hands on “Tasting Paris”, the new book from Clotilde Dusoulier (Parisian food writer and founder of the award-winning blog Chocolate & Zucchini)

This book is a cookbook with recipes, but not only that… Far from it, actually!

It’s a savvy mix of striking lifestyle and food photographs, with classic and modern French recipes, sprinkled with a generous dose of Parisian-lifestyle anecdotes and tips on how to eat your way through Paris – like a real local.

The book is divided between each meal of the day, and Clotilde walks us through the way Parisians have a signature way to enjoy each meal (breakfast is usually a private meal, lunch time tends to dawdle –a lot- and dinner must be preceded by “l’apero”). 

Each recipe comes with a small background blurb and tips on where to go for it if you’re visiting Paris ( ie. grab a chocolate ice-cream on the Ile St-Louis, or enjoy scrumptious Jewish street food in rue des Rosiers).

Between recipes, Clotilde shares some delectable recounts of the city’s unique food scene (like the yearly election of the best baguette) and some insights on Parisians’ landmarks (La Maison Poilane – three generations of Bread Makers; La Maison Berthillon – three generations of Ice-Cream Artisans; La Maison Cluizel – three generations of Chocolatiers, etc.)           

This book is amazing. By the end of it, you’ll truly feel like a local grasping a real sense of the city’s energy and love for all foods (be it classic-Parisian or multicultural). 

If you’re looking for more recommended reads on Parisian food and French cuisine in general, make sure to visit my selection here. And if you have other recommendations,  I’d love to hear them so please leave a comment!

The post 3 Books I’m reading before our next Parisian Food Adventure appeared first on Pardon Your French.